Anifa Mvuemba Is Pausing Production at Hanifa

After nearly 15 years in business, Hanifa is pausing production indefinitely.

In a statement to The Cut, designer and founder Anifa Mvuemba wrote that she doesn’t “really feel inspired right now.”

“I don’t want to rush just to prove resilience. I don’t want to pretend everything is fine just to keep momentum,” Mvuemba wrote. “The years I’ve poured into building this. The time away from friends and family. The moments with my children I won’t get back. Is it all worth it? Was it? I don’t have a perfect answer. I’m still sitting with the question. I’m still figuring out what this season means and where I go from here. I don’t know exactly what the future of Hanifa looks like at this very moment.”

Back in November, the brand, known for its formfitting garments with inclusive sizing and a colorful, playful aesthetic, hosted Hanifa Friday, an annual blockbuster sale on its site with garments up to 45 percent off. Some of the pieces were designated as preorders, which typically entail longer shipping times as noted in the product description. But, according to Mvuemba, production delays from her manufacturers threw a wrench into the equation and stagnated some shipping times. As some customers received their garments on time, others were left waiting. As weeks stretched into a month, then two months, the brand sent updates to its customers, in December and January, who were quickly becoming disgruntled online: Many had purchased their clothes with a special occasion in mind that had already passed, and some say they never received any communications from the brand at all. “I haven’t received a single email and I have items that was supposed to ship in December but hasn’t, it’s almost February,” one user who goes by @notlaja wrote on a TikTok video of the brand. “This is beyond grace and patience.”

The annoyance quickly turned into a social-media uproar. Videos proliferated on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, with customers either voicing their frustration with shipping delays or dissecting where the brand went wrong. The conversation snowballed into discourse about the brand at large, from the fabrics it uses to sizing to accusing it of prioritizing influencer relations over other customers. Mvuemba herself took to social media to issue an apology and explanation to her customers, acknowledging that mistakes, like delayed communication, were made. According to her, the company expedited garments and issued refunds where possible, and, she noted, every order from Hanifa Friday has been fulfilled. Still, though, it didn’t seem to keep the criticism at bay. Throughout all of this, Mvuemba, who had given birth in December, left maternity leave to manage the blowback. “There were nights where I was sobbing in one room and then wiping my face to go be the best mom I could be for my children in the next room,” she said. “I just had a baby. I didn’t fully process any of it because I went straight from postpartum into crisis management.”

The brand, which launched in 2011, quickly gained popularity and a strong fan base for its form-flattering designs and innovative approach to customer relations (the brand famously sent 3-D “ghost” models of their clothes down a virtual runway during the pandemic). In the decade that followed, Hanifa remained one of the few fashion brands that catered to women in a vast array of sizes, creating clothing up to a size 3X. In 2021, the brand staged its first fashion show at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., casting real women from Mvuemba’s community. ““Even when we didn’t have a lot of support from the industry, our customers and community know we see them, and that makes a huge difference,” she told The Cut in 2021.

After years of support from customers, the widespread negative feedback online was a departure from the climate in which Mvuemba had built her brand, and the whiplash from her community took a mental toll. “I also believe you can hold someone accountable without being cruel,” the designer wrote. “Somewhere along the way, it stopped being about the problem and got personal. We’re a brand, but we’re also people.”

Some of the comments under the video she posted pointed toward an unsatisfied customer base. ““TOOO LATEEEE it took social media to be in an uproar. Glad you have a safe birth but girlllll,” one wrote. “Please yall just don’t purchase not 1 more thing!!” another said. Some kept it short: “Yeah…. no.” According to Mvuemba, she was receiving messages attacking her character personally and questioning whether she actually needed to be on maternity leave, none of which she expected. To her, the speed and magnitude of the backlash felt like nothing she or her team could have prepared for and larger than anything they’d dealt with previously

“Founder-led brands operate under a different kind of scrutiny. And when you’re a Black woman, the margin for grace is thinner. That reality is exhausting,” she wrote. “Seeing your name trend for almost two months. Watching conversations take on a life of their own. Holding accountability publicly while doing everything in your power to resolve every single issue.”

Although the designer has continued to have her share of supporters, particularly from her core fan base, writing messages like “You can never make me hate Hanifa!” and “this was such a thoughtful + moving response to everything happening online,” Mvuemba has still decided to take a step back, a move she says is not necessarily permanent.

“There’s also so much gratitude in knowing we’re still here. What we just navigated could have ended things. It didn’t. And that means something,” Mvuemba said. “ Right now, I’m reflecting. I’m protecting what matters to me in this season. And I’m allowing myself to be human in the process. I don’t know exactly what the future of Hanifa looks like at this very moment. And for the first time in 14 years, I’m okay with saying that out loud.”